Richard Field’s views on the Eucharist are expressed as part of a five volume work called Of the Church, volumes I-IV being published in 1606 and volume V in 1610 (Cross and Livingstone, 1984: 512). The following quotations are taken from this work.

“That body and blood which all true Christians do know to be mystically communicated to them in the Sacrament to their unspeakable comfort.” (Field, Of the Church, III, ch. xxxviii, in Stone, 1909: II, 303).

The thing that is offered is the body of Christ, which is an eternal and perpetual propitiatory sacrifice, in that it was once offered by death upon the cross, and hath an everlasting and never-failing force and efficacy. Touching the manner of offering Christ’s body and blood, we must consider that there is a double offering of a thing to God. First, so as men are wont to do that give something to God out of that they possess, professing that they will no longer be owners of it, but that it shall be His, and serve for such uses and employments as He shall convert it to. Secondly, a man may be said to offer a thing unto God in that he bringeth it to His presence, setteth it before His eyes, and offereth it to His view, to incline Him to do something by the sight of it, and respect had to it. In this sort Christ offereth Himself and His body once crucified daily in heaven, and so intercedeth for us, not as giving it in the nature of a gift or present, for He gave Himself to God once, to be holy unto Him for ever, nor in the nature of a sacrifice, for He died once for sin, and rose never to die any more, but in that He setteth it before the eyes of God His Father, representing it unto Him, and so offering it to His view, to obtain grace and mercy for us. And in this sort we also offer Him daily on the altar in that, commemorating His death and lively representing His bitter passions endured in His body upon the cross, we offer Him that was once crucified and sanctified for us on the cross, and all His sufferings, to the view and gracious consideration of the Almighty, earnestly desiring, and assuredly hoping, that He will incline to pity us and show mercy unto us for this His dearest Son’s sake, who in our nature for us, to satisfy His displeasure, and to procure us acceptation, endured such and so grievous things. This king of offering or sacrificing Christ commemoratively is twofold, inward and outward: outward, as the taking, breaking, and distributing the mystical bread, and pouring out the cup of blessing, which is the Communion of the blood of Christ; the inward consisteth in the faith and devotion of the Church and people of God so commemorating the death and passion of Christ their crucified Saviour, and representing and setting it before the eyes of the Almighty, that they fly unto it as their only stay and refuge, and beseech Him to be merciful unto them for His sake that endured all these things, to satisfy His wrath, and work their peace and good.” (Field, Of the Church, III, Appendix, in Stone, 1909: II, 303-4).

“We have altars in the same sort the fathers had, though we have thrown down popish altars; … we admit the Eucharist to be rightly named a sacrifice, though we detest the blasphemous construction the papists make of it.” (Field, Of the Church, III, Appendix, part i, in Stone, 1909: II, 304).

“All agree in this, that they understand such a mutation or change to be made that that which before was earthly and common bread by the words of institution, the invocation of God’s name and divine virtue, is made a Sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ, visibly sitting at the right hand of God in heaven, and yet after an invisible and incomprehensible manner present in the Church; and that the body and blood of Christ are in the Sacrament, and exhibited and given as spiritual meat and drink for the salvation and everlasting life of them that are worthy partakers of the same.” (Field, Of the Church, III, Appendix, part i, in Stone, 1909: II, 304).

“The true presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament, the exhibition of them to be the food of our souls, and such as change of the elements in virtue, grace, and power, of containing in them, and communicating to us, Christ’s body and blood, as the nature of so excellent a Sacrament requireth.” (Field, Of the Church, III, Appendix, part i, in Stone, 1909: II, 304).

Field’s views on eucharistic presence and sacrifice are those of moderate realism. He holds that Christ’s body and blood is mystically communicated in the Eucharist. He also holds that the Eucharist is ‘an eternal and perpetual propitiatory sacrifice’ and that it is right to call the Eucharist a ‘sacrifice’. By this he does not mean that the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ is re-iterated in the Eucharist, but rather that the once only propitiatory sacrifice has an eternal and perpetual force and efficacy. As such there can be an offering to God, both something that a person owns and by way of bringing Christ’s sacrifice before the eyes of God. This representing, but not re-iterating, is a memorial remembrance or anamnesis. It is in this sense that Field goes so far as to say that ‘we offer Him daily on the altar’ as Christ offers himself in heaven. This is not in an immoderate sense where the body of Christ is offered again as at Calvary, but rather in a moderate realist sense. This form of offering takes both an outward and inward form: outward in the form of taking, blessing, breaking, distributing and pouring; and inward in the form of faith and devotion in which Christ’s death and passion is commemorated.

Field also argues that there is a change or a mutation in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, so that the earthly is made ‘a Sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ’. By using the word sacrament, Field here excludes the immoderate sense of realism and affirms the moderate realist sense of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. The moderate sense of Christ’s presence is real though since Field argues that the bread and wine exhibit and contain what it represents, and it truly communicates the benefits of Christ’s presence to those who receive it.